Bucknell Edges Women's Water Polo, 12-11, in CWPA Championship

Apr 26, 2014

Price recorded a hat trick for the Crimson on Saturday. (Photo: Gil Talbot)

LEWISBERG, Pa. – The seventh-seeded Harvard women's water polo team dropped a heartbreaker to six-seed Bucknell on Saturday in the CWPA Championship, 12-11. The Bison scored the game-winning goal with just three seconds left on the clock to advance past the Crimson in a thrilling contest.

It was a tight game in the early going as each team traded goals to a 2-2 start before Shayna Price tallied a score with 19 seconds left in the opening frame to give Harvard a 3-2 advantage after one. After back-to-back goals by Bucknell's Eleanor Marrs gave the dark caps a 4-3 lead, CWPA Southern Division Rookie of the Year Melissa Balding got the Crimson back on track, netting a score to knot things at 4-4.

Marrs made it a hat trick in the second frame before Price potted her second goal of the game to even the ledger once again at 5-5 in the back-and-forth contest. Bucknell, however, would score one final time in the stanza to go into the break up one.

Victoria Frager, Price and Charlotte Hendrix each scored for Harvard in the third , but Bucknell never fell behind a one-goal deficit and maintained a 9-8 lead into the final frame. First Team All-CWPA honoree Yoshi Andersen got the Crimson off on another hot start to open the fourth with a quick goal to open things up, but two Bucknell socres quieted the Harvard attack, but not for long.

Jelena Cyr sent one home to bring the Crimson within one at 11-10, and Kalina Grabb notched the game-tying score with 1:06 remaining. After Harvard had an exclusion with 15 seconds left, Bucknell finally netted the eventual winning goal with three ticks remaining to edge the Crimson and advance to the fifth-place contest.